Escalation of digital fraud in India drives businesses to invest USD 7.6 bn to curb fraudsters: Study

Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], May 16 : The urgency among businesses in India to curb digital fraud and invest in modern fraud detection and prevention practices is set to increase by 400 per cent between now and 2027.

The total addressable fraud detection and prevention market will reach USD 7.6 billion in less than four years with a 37 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR), far surpassing 2022's USD 1.5 billion, according to a study from Bureau.

Bureau, a no-code decisioning platform that delivers accurate conclusions about the trustworthiness of digital identities, came out with a study The Anatomy of Fraud 2023. This provides insights on the size of and drivers behind digital fraud in India and Southeast Asia against a backdrop of the global digital economy.

The report revealed of the total reported digital payment fraud, 55 per cent is UPI-related. While the attack volume is massive, the financial impact is actually relatively low. Half of the UPI-related fraud attacks tend to be low-ticket size (less than Rs 10,000), according to the study.

The study also shows account-related fraud attacks like account takeovers (ATOs) and fake account registrations - are preferred types of overall fraudulent activity taking place in India. Customer journey verification and striking a balance between security and customer experience (CX) are the top challenges businesses face in detecting these account-related fraud types.

For example, in financial services account-related fraud makes up 65 per cent of all types of fraud being perpetrated. In e-commerce, that share equals 54 per cent.

"We undertook this study with rigour to discover the magnitude of digital fraud, its effect on the Digital Economy, and to add to the body of knowledge about attack types and solutions," said Bureau founder and CEO Ranjan R Reddy.

The study said the fraudster community is well-organised. Groups on the dark web and Telegram forums house marketplaces where people can buy "plug and play" fraud technology, offer tutorials on how to carry out certain types of attacks, and share information about which companies to target.

Fraudsters no longer have to be tech-savvy to launch harmful bot attacks and Generative AI makes social engineering and phishing scams that much more convincing, thus harder to know which digital identities are real, according to the study.

"The findings are timely. The digital economy runs on digital identities, and fraudsters are literally banking on that. Out in the ether, anyone can be anybody. Are you really who you say you are, is the critical question the chief risk officers, CTOs (chief technology officers), CIOs (chief information officers), CISOs (chief information security officers), and their teams in businesses around the world ask every day," Ranjan R Reddy said.

He added, "Not being able to discern which digital identities are trustworthy is the inflection point between growth and failure. All it takes is for one bad actor to launch a successful digital-fraud incursion for businesses to lose consumer trust, brand equity, and revenue - for good."

The Indian government is being proactive, the study said. Its fraud mitigation initiatives, namely stringent KYC processes across digital segments, new regulations for the real-money gaming sector, are ensuring businesses protect themselves and their consumers, it added.

Financially-motivated fraudsters focus on high-value targets. For example, India's banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector is in the cross-hairs, which is one reason why it holds the largest share of collective investment in fraud detection and prevention solutions at more than 70 per cent, followed immediately by the robust e-commerce sector with 24 per cent.

Reddy said: "Fraudsters go where the money and opportunity are. The rising digitization, digital inclusion expansion, and a growing number of digital-first businesses suggest India is going to continue to be a hotbed of digital fraud."

According to the statement, Bureau conducted the survey in association with research and consulting firm, Praxis, to study the impact of digital fraud globally, especially in India and Southeast Asia (SEA), to address the increasing significance of fraud detection and prevention (FDP) in the global marketplace.